Re:Greenland tensions harden Europe's push for energy indepe...
by spwa4 on Monday February 02, 2026 @02:54PM
(#46860489)
Solar panels contain quite a bit of lead, and small amounts of cadmium. Lead can be taken out if you're willing to pay a bit more, in other words it never is. Cadmium is required. Other metals are sometimes present.
So solar panels are classified as hazardous waste.
Re:Greenland tensions harden Europe's push for energy indepe...
by philipkglass on Monday February 02, 2026 @03:45PM
(#46861267)
Cadmium is only required in cadmium telluride solar panels, which have less than 5% global market share. Lead solder is still common in crystalline silicon panels, though not universal; modules built with heterojunction cells typically avoid solder because the cells can't tolerate temperatures that high:
https://blog.ucs.org/charlie-hoffs/how-are-solar-panels-made...
Crystalline silicon solar panels have about 95% market share, and "By weight, the typical crystalline silicon solar panel is made of about 76% glass, 10% plastic polymer, 8% aluminum, 5% silicon, 1% copper, and less than 0.1% silver and other metals."
Everything that is manufactured is made out of atoms, and you can say that any manufacturing requires some nature destruction in the aggregate. But solar electricity requires far less mining and natural despoilation than fossil-fueled electricity.